Slide
by windscryer
Summary: Juliet enjoys her new apartment's best feature. Shules.
1. Wood Floors Were Made For This

Lu wanted O'Spencer fluff from the following prompt: socks, heat, new apartment.

This is the result. :D

Disclaimer: Oh man, I wish. I'd have at least one moment like this every episode. :D

On the Shules spice-meter this rates a mild.

* * *

She looked around at the stacks of boxes, the furniture hidden under a smattering of loose and contained objects that had yet to find a permanent home, and gave a pleased—if tired—sigh.

It would take her a week to be able to really live here, a month or more before she was truly satisfied with everything in place and all the boxes were gone.

She _should_ get started unpacking.

She didn't even have dishes to eat on or bedding to sleep on yet.

She looked down at the floors and rubbed a sock-clad toe along the light colored wood.

A small grin stretched her lips until she bit down on the bottom one to contain it.

She wasn't really hungry just yet. And she certainly wasn't sleepy.

With a giggle that was smothered a moment later under a surprised hand, she backed up to the wall, lined up with the hallway that ran the length of her apartment . . . and ran, stopping seven or eight steps in and leaning back.

With a delicious ease she slid across the floor, nearly running headfirst into the left wall of her little home.

She laughed out loud, then turned and went the other direction, seven or eights steps of running and then thirty or so feet of sliding.

There were many things she had looked for in a new apartment.

Proximity to shopping and entertainment, not to mention work.

Neighbors that didn't make her glad she carried a gun.

A landlord she could trust to take care of issues when they cropped up because no building was perfect.

She'd had one other item on her list, and though she'd looked at apartment after condo after townhouse after cottage, only one of them had been blessed with this last item, as well as the first three.

She wanted wood floors.

Yeah, she knew that carpet was warmer and that scratching the wood made for a headache and a half in repairs . . .

But she didn't care.

Some of her fondest memories were of going to her grandparents' house in Nebraska in the winter.

I had been freezing compared to her native Miami, Florida, and she hadn't really appreciated the magic of snow.

But long winter afternoons edging into evening spent running around the spacious old house, slipping and sliding over the well-polished wood in thick socks, had made the trips bearable and even longed for in the summer when the scratchy itchy sand between her toes started to be less fun and more annoying.

And now? Now she could slide _anytime she wanted._

She made another run toward the front, adding a twist of her hips that sent her spinning around the corner toward her front door—and ran smack into something both hard and warm that grabbed at her instead of just stopping her progress.

She looked up in surprise to find Shawn watching her with an amused smile on his face.

"I came by to help you move. Did I miss all the fun?" he asked.

Heat flooded her cheeks as she realized she'd been caught out.

She tried to step back, out of his embrace, and into a comfortable distance from which she could think of a damn good reason for her behavior.

But his arms just tightened and he leaned forward until she was looking over his shoulder and his lips were almost brushing her ear.

"I love seeing you blush, but, Jules, if it means you're going to stop what you're doing it will ruin the effect."

He pulled back and she blinked at him.

She cleared her throat, intending to ask him to remove his hands from her hips, but instead of the polite request what came out was, "Do you want to slide with me?"

His grin widened and the corners of his eyes crinkled.

"I'd love to," he said and darted in to plant a chaste kiss on her still-flaming cheek.

While she was blinking her way through that, he let her go and stepped back to brace a hand on the wall so he could tug off his shoes.

He tossed them around the corner where they'd be out of the way, then wiggled his toes in their cotton coverings.

"Race you," he said, then bolted past her and around the corner.

She couldn't help the laugh that bubbled up as she spun and ran to catch up.

They slipped and slid into the far wall, Shawn providing a much softer surface than the painted sheetrock.

His arms came around her once more and he stole another kiss.

"Happy housewarming, Jules."

A quick squeeze of his arms across her middle and then he lifted her up and ran, carrying her along on the next slide as she laughed out loud.

Happy housewarming, indeed.

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	2. Crash and Burn

*GLEEEEEE*

* * *

So maybe this idea had been better in his head than playing out in reality.

Turns out trying to stay upright and the ability to stop are both hampered by adding extra weight. Who knew?

So while Juliet was laughing during the slide, the crash at the end was accompanied by a gasp on her part when she realized they were going to hit the wall hard, and an, "Oof!" of air leaving his lungs when he managed to spin and come between her and said wall.

She made a valiant effort to keep the both of them upright but, well, they were wearing socks and socks on wood floors were slippery.

Thus the point of the whole exercise.

They went down in a tangle of limbs. She gasped again and he went, "Oof!" again. He blinked up at the ceiling until she put her lovely face in between him and his view of pale paint texturing.

"Shawn?" she said. "Are you okay?"

Wow. She was so close . . .

In fact if he lifted his head just a little bit- He got within a breath of her lips, could almost _feel_ the heat coming off of her skin.

And stopped.

He'd already stolen two kisses without consequences—yet—but had no illusions about being able to do that a third time. His eyes closed and he let his head drop.

Then winced.

"Ow," he muttered.

He expected a laugh, or her moving her hands from his chest to the floor in preparation for pushing to her feet and helping him up.

What he _didn't_ expect was a soft puff of air against his lips and then the absence of more thanks to a softer pair pressing onto his.

His eyes flew open and met pale blue ones just inches away.

He froze.

He wanted to kiss her back.

He wanted it so badly that his hands spasmed on the floor, trying to find something to grip and finding only sock-warmed wood. The other alternative would be to come up and find Jules and grab a hold of her and never let go.

That would end badly.

But he didn't know what else to do so he stayed frozen, staring up at her and trying not to breathe, lest she realize what was going on.

Her eyes crinkled at the corners and he felt her lips curve on his for just a moment before the former closed and the latter pressed harder.

And then she was kissing him—not just lips touching, but really _kissing_ him. His eyes closed then and he dared to let his muscles relax. As much as they would anyway.

He carefully and deliberately flattened his hands on the floor and pressed down, needing to both keep them from getting him in trouble, and because if he didn't anchor himself he was just going to float away on the high he was feeling right now.

She tasted like chocolate chips and if he'd had the mental capacity at the moment he would have made a mental note to tell Francie that she made delicious cookies.

He was, however, too busy to do so.

He kept expecting it to stop, had himself convinced that he was feeling the effects of relativity as defined by Einstein, that it had been mere _seconds_ and that it was going to end just as fast.

Except he was getting light headed and it had less to do with the fact that he was kissing Juliet and more to do with the fact that he was in need of oxygen.

Meh. Oxygen was overrated.

Sadly, his lungs did not agree and he involuntarily broke away, gasping like a beached fish.

He had the oddest moment of curiosity and wondered if Juliet liked fishing. He'd probably like it more if she were along.

She pulled back and he had to swallow a whimper as his fingers spasmed on the floor again.

Then she smiled, head tilting.

"This would probably be more comfortable on the couch," she said.

He had to swallow again between panting breaths from trying to recover from his previous deprivation.

"I'm good here," he said.

She laughed and came back down for a quick peck on the lips. He tried to follow her as she rose once more, coming up on braced elbows before his abs' inability to lift him up anymore forced him to stop.

She made it to her feet, then held out a hand.

"Come on."

He wanted to take her hand and pull her back down, but he was still painfully aware that he had to let her set the pace or she would back off completely and put him back at arm's length.

So he accepted her hand and let her tug him to his feet.

She bounced up on her toes slightly and kissed him again and he just about melted right back down to the ground.

"I got a fruit basket from the girls in dispatch," she said. "Guess what was the centerpiece."

His lips stretched in a slow grin.

"There's only one problem."

The smile vanished.

"My dishes are still packed."

The grin returned in a flash.

"Did you know," he said conversationally, as he placed a hand on the small of her back and guided her to the kitchen, "that pineapple was the official fruit of Aphrodite in ancient Greece?"

Juliet's brow furrowed in that adorable way Shawn loved.

"Really? I . . . didn't know that they _had_ pineapple in ancient Greece."

He nodded. "Oh, they did. Only they called it something totally different because they spoke Greek instead of English."

She laughed and he grinned. He probably looked like a big goofy idiot, but he couldn't help it. He _loved_ her laugh. He definitely needed to see about making it happen more often.

She continued to chuckle as she pointed to a box on one side of the table.

"I have no idea where my plates or knives are, so you open that one and I'll try this one."

He waffled for a moment, then took a chance and said, "Jules?"

She looked up and over at him and as soon as she was close enough but still unaware of his intent, he planted a kiss on her lips.

"Thanks for inviting me to slide with you."

She smiled.

"Anytime, Shawn. Anytime."

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